Published in

American Astronomical Society, Astronomical Journal, 1(122), p. 55-62, 2001

DOI: 10.1086/321134

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Serendipitous discovery of a cluster of galaxies with a peculiar central galaxy

Journal article published in 2001 by Kurtis A. Williams ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Preprint: archiving forbidden
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Postprint: archiving forbidden
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Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We report the serendipitous discovery of a cluster of galaxies at z=0.369. Thirty-eight candidate members were identified based on rough broad-band photometric redshifts, and three members were confirmed spectroscopically. The brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) is exceptionally blue, with B-V=0.12 and V-I=1.02. The surface-brightness profile of the BCG follows an r^(1/4)-law profile out to 3" in all three bands. The effective radius is significantly smaller in bluer bandpasses, resulting in a blue core and a color gradient opposite to the metallicity-induced color gradient observed in typical elliptical galaxies. Beyond 3" an extended envelope of emission in excess of the r^(1/4)-law profile is observed, the position angle of which coincides with the major axis of the galaxy cluster. The spectrum of the BCG contains strong Balmer absorption, a minimal 4000 A break, and a broad Mg II emission line, suggesting that the galaxy has undergone recent star formation and may harbor a central AGN. The presence of numerous nearby bright stars makes this cluster an interesting target for next-generation adaptive optics using natural guide stars. Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal